New Starts Forecasting – Purple Line

Ms. Harper managed the enhancements of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) regional model, in support of Alternatives Analyses in two separate corridors in the Washington, D.C. region. Corridors included the Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT) in Frederic and Montgomery Counties of Maryland, and the Purple Line (PL) in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties, just north of the D.C. boundary. She produced the Alternatives Analysis forecasts for the Purple Line. Major enhancements to the TP+ based model included an update of the Home-based Work trip distribution, restructuring of the mode choice model, and recalibration. An analysis and comparison of user benefits using FTA’s Summit program was used to evaluate user benefits for each alternative. She also managed the transit travel survey on the Washington METRO rail system. Work involved coordination with the METRO survey contractor on survey design, implementation, data cleaning and geocoding. She supervised the processing, analysis and use of the travel survey in the Purple Line and Corridor Cities Transitway model set. (While employed at Parsons Brinckerhoff.)